Context: The recent inauguration of the new Parliament building, and the Ram temple has sparked discussions regarding the intersection of politics and religion in urbanisation.
About Urbanization:
- Urbanization is a process that transforms the built environment, converting formerly rural into urban settlements, while also shifting the spatial distribution of a population from rural to urban areas.
- Urbanization in India is mainly due to liberalization of its economy after the 1990s, which gave rise to the development of the private sector.
- Presently, although urbanization is taking place at a fast rate in India, but still urban areas account for just 3% of the nation’s land and 31.1% of its population (Census of India 2011).
Factors that have led to the Urbanization in India
- Population growth: An outcome of more births than deaths in urban areas, a direct function of the fertility rate as well as the quality of healthcare systems (lower mortality rates, particularly for infants).
- Migration: Rural to urban migrations due to agriculture distress, better employment opportunities, access to better education, healthcare and amenities etc. has been a strong urbanization factor.
- Expansion of towns and cities: Due to high economic growth that the city has witnessed over the years. Because of this, the government in India has decided to grab the opportunity to further thrust the country into urbanization, several smart cities to be put up in various locations, and other initiatives.
Emerging challenges due to unsustainable Urbanization
- Overcrowding: Beyond the carrying capacity results in congestion, pollution and additional burden over limited natural resources of urban areas.
- Governance status: As per Census 2011, the urban system of India consists of 7933 settlements - statutory and census towns. While statutory towns are governed as urban local bodies, census towns are governed as villages. As a result, India is transitioning from a mostly rural to a quasi-urban country.
- Lack of adequate town planning: Master plans statutory instruments critical for managing urbanisation. They guide and regulate the present and future utilisation of land, expansion, and zoning of cities. But about half of our statutory towns are expanding without any master.
- Enhanced sense of relative deprivation: Gives rise to urban crimes such as human trafficking, sexual assault, child labour, Juvenile delinquency, prostitution, drugs and suicides.
- Sub-Optimal utilisation of urban land: Due to fragmented and poorly recorded ownership of urban land. multiple public sector organizations/agencies— ports, railways, ULBs, etc.— own land under their jurisdictions. For a city to develop holistically, planning for each land parcel needs to fall into one comprehensive spatial strategy.
- Pressure on basic infrastructure: Giving rise to unsustainable land price, unaffordable rent, inadequate health and education infrastructure, solid waste management problem etc.
- Unplanned growth of slums: As per Census 2011, 17.3% of the total urban population was under slums in India.
Government initiatives to deal with urbanisation:
- 100 Smart Cities Mission: To develop smart cities across the country, making them citizen friendly and sustainable.
- Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT): To provide basic civic amenities like water supply, sewerage, urban transport, parks as to improve the quality of life for all especially the poor and the disadvantaged.
- National Mission on sustainable habitat: It is one of the eight climate missions under the NAPCC mitigation strategy, to make the cities sustainable through improvements in energy efficiency in building, management of solid waste and to shift to public transport.
- National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY): For bringing together urban planning, economic growth and heritage conservation in an inclusive manner to preserve the heritage character of each Heritage City.
- Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U): To addresses urban housing shortage among the EWS/LIG and MIG categories including the slum dwellers by ensuring a pucca house to all eligible urban households by the year 2022, when Nation completes 75 years of its Independence.
Way forward:
- Recommendations by Niti Aayog:
- 500 Healthy Cities Programme’, for a period of 5 years to ensure holistic socio-economic development of Indian cities.
- All the cities/towns under the proposed 'Healthy Cities Programme' should strengthen regulations to maximize the efficiency of urban land.
- A citizen outreach campaign for making the process of urban planning more inclusive and accessible.
- National Council of Town and Country Planners to be constituted as a statutory body of the Government of India to improve the governance of urban areas.
- Adopt a circular economy system to minimize their negative impacts on the environment.
- Preventing distress migration to cities through Rurbanization i.e., providing urban like facilities in rural areas or make rural areas smart.
- The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has recommended that master plans in cities should be revisited for the improved governance of cities.